The semi-weekly fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1887-10-18
A CITY OF THE DESERT.
THE MARVELLOUS RESULTS OF IR-
RIGATION IN ARIZONA
Making the Territory's Dry Plains
Blossom as the Rose-A Track
less Waste Reclaimed.


a Mesa City (Arizona) letter to the
New York World says: This Is a garden
in the desert If New York farmer had
been dropped down here ten years ago he
would have laughed TO scorn the sug-
gestion that there would be planted vine
yards and orchards, and that here would
grow the finest grapes and other small
fruits on the American continent Ten
years ago this wide extended plain known
as the Salt River Valley was almost a track
less waste o. sand. mesquite bushes and
cactus. The sand was in many places as
bare and white as on the beach at Coney
Island, not one living blade of grass to
give it the sign of life and productiveness.
It's hidden wealth had not yet been
discovered, and the Government itself
permitted any daring settler that might
come this way to purchase at nominal
price as much as a whole section of GAO
acres. All Southern Arizona was adj
judged, as much of it is yet, to be desert
land, and the belief was general that il
was a sort of Dry Tortugas-a No Mans
Land-fit only for the sun to shine on
and a playground for the winds to dis
port themselves in without let or hind
rance.
But in fewer years than there are
months in the year a settlement or town
of more than two thousand people has
established itself here, and as | write |
look out over many square miles not of
sandy plain and broken patches of mes
quite, but of long and wide lanes Dor
dered on either side by high cottonwood
fields of the greenest alfalfa, vineyards
loaded with the most delicious grapes,
and orchards of peach, apricot and pear
trees. The tallest one of these tall cot
tonwoods, whose leaves make unceasing
music with their rustic in the breeze, has
has not been planted above six years and
most of them are but four years old.
One might imagine the stroke of some
supernatural hand had brought this pict-
ure forth from the bosom of the earth
and set it out complete for the wonder
ment of mankind, SO beautiful and COM
plete is it, and SO strikingly in contrast
with the barren plains and rugged noun
tains by which it is surrounded.
We have read stories of how weary
and thirsty travellers in the desert have
been deceived by the mirage, rejecting
streams of water, shady trees and green
grass. Here is a mirage of the desert
come true / can think of no better IL
lustration of the change that has been
wrought here in these last seven years.
And this splendid result has been accom-
plished by building few inexpensive
bitches and the diversion of a small part
of the water of the Salt River, one of the
principal streams of Arizona.
Mesa City is a series of embOwered
homes. A single establishment answers
for post-oftice, stage-ofice, dry goods
store, real estate office and everything else
that pertains to a purely mercantile side
of city life. Every householder in this
remarkable town is a horticuturist, liv-
ing in reality under his own vine and
fig tree. One could go from one end
of the principal street to the other with
out discovering he was in a village at all.
know of nothing approaching this de-
rural aspect except in some of
the more thickly settled and highly cul-
tivated country districts of France.
But the browning charm of this village
of gardens is the water which runs
through it in clear and ripping streams.
The principal canals are three or four
feet deep, and the current that flows
through them is of considerable size,
while in the smaller one it is but a rivu-
let, but always, whether great or small,
as clear as the blue sky above and as
fresh as the melting snow of the noun
tains can make it.
Water is, of course, the agency through
which this mirage of the desert had been
fixed and made a reality. Here is seen
one of the many wonderful results of ir-
rigation, which is creating revolution
in Southern California and which is des-
tined to add almost untold millions of
acres of the richest tillable land to the
domain of the United States.
Mesa City takes its name from the
broad mesa (the Spanish for plain or val
ley), upon which it is built. All South
ern Arizona abounds in these most level
stretches of land that to the casual OBJ
server seem to be but sand wastes with
the scantiest vegetation. But it has been
that these mesas are covered
with an alluvial deposit varying In depth
from seven to twenty feet, which has
been deposited through ages of time by
heavy washings from the sides of noun
tains which spring mp in all directions
without apparent order or system. The
sand is but thin covering of decompos-
ing or rotten stone and underneath it is a
soil of the richest brown loan. AS soon
as the soil is broken up by a harrow OF
plough and water applied to it, the most
results follow. Almost every
form of vegetation will grow with UMPIRE
rapidity, and to unexampled
and abundance. Nature IS
full of compensations and remedies for
what may appear to be the most insur-
III hn